Shirakawa-go

白川郷 荻町合掌集落

A mountain village of steep thatched roofs

⚠ Book the bus ahead

Hours

Village always open; open houses and the lookout shuttle keep their own hours (check on site)

Tickets

Village free; open houses charge individually

Address

Ogimachi, Shirakawa village, Ono District, Gifu; buses stop at Shirakawa-go Bus Terminal

Thatched farmhouses with roofs as steep as hands pressed in prayer cluster among rice fields in this World Heritage mountain village. The pitch is there to shed winters of snow that pile up past two metres. Climb to the lookout behind the village and you get the postcard view: rows of thatched roofs along the river. Most houses are still lived in, so only a few large ones open their interiors; the rest you admire quietly from the lane.